The mirrored sky continued to crack.
Thin, jagged fractures crawled outward like veins of light across a surface that should not have been solid. Each fracture echoed through the air with a low, impossible hum. The ocean below rippled in response, reacting to the sky rather than the wind, as if the two realms were connected more deeply than simple reflection.
Kai narrowed his crimson eyes, instincts sharpening as the world began to collapse around him.
The bloodline of Valeria pulsed through him again hot, cold, ancient, overwhelming.
A bloodline said to be gifted by a god.
A claim no one understood.
For thousands of years, not a single living soul had seen a god. People speculated, told stories, worshipped ancestral myths… but no proof existed. And yet the Valeria house had always spoken of their bloodline as a divine inheritance, a remnant of something sacred passed down through generations.
The other houses those formed from explorers, scholars, and conquerors who discovered ancient civilizations before the First Conjurers War also claimed inheritance from forgotten trials. Relics of power. Marks etched into their souls. Gifts they passed to their children.
But the Valeria lineage was different.
Untouchable.
Unexplainable.
Unrecorded.
Everyone feared it.
Everyone respected it.
Everyone wondered if it was a curse disguised as a blessing.
Kai didn't know the truth either.
His sister didn't know.
The previous queen didn't know.
The ancient books didn't know.
But the bloodline answered only to the Valeria children.
And right now, it reacted violently.
Kai lifted his gaze to the mirrored sky, which was now splintering further, the cracks spreading so widely that he could see faint, shifting colors behind them. The crimson glow of his pupils intensified, focusing sharply, tearing through the veil of the mirror itself.
And then he saw it.
A shape.
A shadow.
A silhouette moving behind the fractured sky.
A creature.
A massive, impossible creature.
It drifted through the mirrored sky or sea, he could not tell which. The colors behind the mirror shifted like blood swirling through water, making it hard to distinguish direction or depth. The creature swam, or flew, or floated… he had no idea. Its form shifted as if it didn't belong to the world of shapes or logic.
What truly froze his breath were its eyes.
Not one.
Not two.
Many.
Each eye was a different size, a different direction, a different color scattered across its colossal body like stars scattered across the night sky.
Kai pressed his lips together, his chest tightening.
His crimson bloodline eyes allowed him to peer into the mirror, to see what should have been hidden. That alone was terrifying.
But what came next defied reason.
The creature turned.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Its many eyes aligned, each one focusing directly on him.
Kai's breath caught as ice crawled up his spine.
"How…?" he whispered.
He could see the creature.
That was normal for someone with his lineage.
But the creature should NOT see him.
Not through the mirror.
Not through the veil.
Not across dimensions.
And yet—
Every single one of the creature's unnatural eyes stared directly at him.
As if the mirror didn't exist.
As if he was exposed.
As if the creature had been waiting.
Kai stumbled backward. His heart pounded, his vision blurred, and a cold wave of emotion surged through him terror, confusion, the instinctual fear of prey being noticed by a predator beyond comprehension.
Then
Pain.
Sharp. Overwhelming.
Crippling.
It hit him like a spike driven through his skull.
Not from the creature.
Not from the mirror.
Not from the trial.
From within.
His emotions surged wildly fear twisting into rage, dread collapsing into despair, panic collapsing into emptiness. Every feeling he possessed tangled into a violent storm, crashing into one another so rapidly he could barely breathe.
His curse had awakened.
Kai clutched his head, teeth grinding as the agony ripped through him, tearing at his mind like claws dragging along his nerves. His crimson eyes flickered, the glow dimming and blazing in rapid pulses.
The hand band on his left wrist vibrated.
The chain dangling from it rattled, then twitched.
Then moved.
Then grew.
Before Kai could react, the chains extended, slithering like metallic serpents along his wrist. They slid across his skin, cold and sharp, and began to burrow into his flesh.
Kai did not scream.
He didn't even wince.
It was as if he knew instinctively what was happening. As if the process was familiar. As if the chains had done this before.
They slid deeper, weaving into his muscles, crawling up his arm without spilling a single drop of blood. The metal was cold at first, then burning hot, then cold again. His veins pulsed around the intrusion, unaffected.
As the chains reached his shoulder, something black seeped from the band.
A dark substance.
Thick.
Shadow-like.
Alive.
It spread slowly, engulfing his hand first, coating his skin in an inky darkness that swallowed the light around it. It crept up his arm, spiraling around him, wrapping his ribs, climbing his neck, spreading over his entire form like a second skin of living night.
The pain faded.
Completely.
His emotions once chaotic and overwhelming suddenly clarified. Became cold. Sharp. Focused. It was as though the darkness numbed everything, dampening the storm inside him.
Kai exhaled softly.
The creature beyond the mirror still watched him.
But his fear no longer controlled him.
His panic no longer strangled him.
The chains settled inside him.
The darkness clung to him.
His crimson eyes gleamed brighter than ever.
The trial had changed.
He had changed.
Something irreversible had been set into motion.
****
Back to the Past
One Week later
The carriage rattled softly as it descended, its flight slowing as the flying beasts neared their destination. Kai blinked out of his thoughts, staring outside through the thin window where clouds had been moments ago.
Now—land.
A sprawling city came into view.
Falling Haste City.
A place so large it felt more like a continent than a settlement. Built on cliffs, rising platforms, and layered stone halls, it stretched far beyond the horizon. Flags bearing dozens of different crests waved in the wind proof of how many kingdoms sent their children here for their own awakenings.
Kai leaned closer to the window, eyes widening slightly.
At long last, after seven endless days…
He finally arrived.
The guard shifted forward slightly, bowing his head.
"My prince," he said calmly, "we have reached Falling Haste City. The Pillars of Creation await."
Kai didn't answer.
He just stared ahead, unaware of how deeply this moment would shape everything that came after.